Fall and Rise: Part Two of The Shepard Twins Saga
by whitetiger62512
Summary: this piece takes place from the start of the prologue of the second game until just before the true start of the second game. this gives a bit more backstory on the twins and just who they know in the underworld.
1. Chapter 1

Return ch.1

{My heart how are you?} Odysseus 'Demo' Shepard asked his fiancé Tali'Zorah over the Comm channel as the ship was on a search pattern over the frozen planet of Alchera, Demo was wearing a hard suit that was similar to the N7 demolisher armor as he had been working on a new suit design and tech while on mission. {Okay my father is driving me mad. Keelah you would think delivering the cure for our people and a lot of geth data would get his attention but no. I have not been able to tell him about the wedding.} Tali grumbled sounding stressed. {Worry not my dear heart I will be there soon to help deal with all of that once we finish this sweep we are heading to pick up Garrus before heading for you.} Demo vowed but before Tali could respond the ship shook violently. "Joker what in the ancestors name is happening?" Demo barked into his Comm. "enemy ship firing on our ass!" another blast shook the ship.

{Tali I have to go and teach some Bosh' Tet what happens when you fire on me in the middle of a call! I will call you as soon as I have dealt with this, I Love you my sweet angel Keelah se'lai! Eris get off the Comm you can make kissy faces with you Turian later!} He said before he cut the Comm channel and Tali sat back in her seat aboard the Neema praying that he would be alright but having a bad feeling. {What is wrong Tali?} Her aunty Ran asked. {Demo's ship is being fired on and he had to hang up to deal with it.} She said and felt her aunt lay a hand on her shoulder. {Don't worry from what you told me of your love he will always find a way back to you.} She said before moving away.

On Palaven Garrus heard Odysseus yell over the Comm to his sister before she turned to him and said. {Sorry my fang I will call you as soon as we have dealt with this I Love you and I will see you soon I can't wait to see Solana and your mother again.} She hung up and Garrus could not stop the cold hand that seemed to wrap around his heart. "What is wrong my child?" Garrus's mother asked as she came up the treatment had worked better than expected and now she was all but cured. "Eris is off fighting an enemy without me and she is in a ship not on the ground or in a fighter." Garrus said. "Don't worry my son she will return to you I saw the love you two share she will be back if she must fight past the spirits of the fallen to do it." she said before taking his hand and leading him out to the dining room to have dinner with the family.

Eris and Odysseus were thrown from the escape pod just as it had been about to launch and now they drifted towards the planet below as their air sprung leaks from impacts with the remains of the ship. {VI activate protocol Thanatos sub set spaced decay orbit!} Odysseus gasped out as the air started to run out. The VI sent a signal to Eris's Shadow hard suit and both suits began the protocol that Demo had made for something like this. Section seals on the suits quickly slammed shut sealing the suits and rerouting the air to cut off the leaks as dendrotoxin was pushed into their systems. As the toxin slowed their body to a pair of matching false death states Medi-gel started being applied with a cooling agent to lower the body temp to preserve the cells as the shields flared to brace for impact to lessen the damage of impact and descent. A pair of false corpses fell to the planet below as long as the alliance found them within a week they would be able to be revived.

A week had gone by and Garrus had still not heard from Eris he was now beyond worrying. He paced his room wanting to race off to find her but knew it would be hopeless to try and find her out there without a starting point more clear, a Comm request on an alliance channel had Garrus bolting for his terminal. The face of Captain Anderson appeared and at once Garrus knew something was wrong, the man looked like he had aged years in the short time since Garrus had last seen him. "Ambassador what is the matter?" Garrus asked already dreading the answer, the man looked even sadder at his question. "Given the fact that you two were engaged I did not want you to find out from the news Garrus." "Find out what?" "Last week shortly after your call with her ended the Normandy was destroyed by an unknown enemy and most of the crew survived but Eris and Odysseus were KIA, I am sorry for your loss I wish I could talk longer but I have more of the same FUCKING calls to make." And with that the man was gone, Garrus fell to his knees and roared in pain and fury at the world as his mate to be had been taken from him.

Across the galaxy Tali collapsed and started crying as she heard the news and that was how her aunt found her hours later curled up on the floor sobbing for the loss of her heart to an enemy she would never know. As soon as the news aired a single message spread like wild fire through the underground, 'the twins were gone the shadows of the alliance were dead.' Many cried out from that news many in grief and just as many cried out in rage at the loss of their rivals and worthy foes. The queen of Omega raised a shot in a toast to the fallen demons of the shadows that had once struck fear into every slaver's heart, she called out the toast to pay tribute to a pair of worthy enemies of the underworld and throughout the station many also raised a toast with her.

The funeral had been planned to be simple but a large number of people from all walks of life arrived to pay homage to the twins. Liara was the only surviving member of the crew not there for the ceremony. Ashley saw Tali and Garrus together standing in front of the holo's of the twins (Still masked and suited just as they would had wanted) with the quarian mothers of the twins. Ashley was amazed at the crowd here, she saw a strange leather clad green drell placing a strange flower on the empty casket for Eris so Ashley moved to speak with him. "How did you know her?" Ashley asked the drell who had introduced himself and Thane, he spoke in a calm far away voice as if remembering something that happened. "Crosshairs lined up breath held for a beat about to pull trigger, shimmer of light. sparking blade flashes, blood splatters across pure black mask that looks at me chill runs down spine." Ashley looks at the drell for a moment. "Yeah that sounds like the commander alright, she was scary on the battle field alright." "Yes she was a true Siha." Thane said before excusing himself. Ashley saw a shimmer of a cloak and spun fast with a hand darting out and catching the person could leave. "Wow I have never seen some one do that!" Came a light Japanese voice as a small woman shimmered into view. "How did you know I was there?" "The shimmer spend enough time with the twins and you learn to see it." She said and the woman let out a sad chuckle. "Yeah Demo love being cloaked almost as much as me." She said before another man came up and whispered in the woman's ear before they moved away. The ceremony was brief and somber the twins were given full honors and all of the council spoke a few words. When the ceremony ended the ground team took had one last drink together before leaving.


	2. Chapter 2

darker than the last chapter and the next will be not as dark i promise.

so focus for the chapter is Garrus, Tali is the next chapter

Chapter Text

Ch.2

Six months six empty long months of trying to carry on Eris's work by training to be a specter and working hard at C-sec trying to do good. But nothing Garrus did seemed to help the void in his heart, every time he got close to catching a big fish as Eris would have put it the bastard slipped through his red tape bound claws. That was how he found himself staring down the barrel of his pistol so many times and every time he was about to pull the trigger he heard her voice yelling at him. {You pull that trigger Vakarian and I will never accept you to myside my sweet fang was never this weak!} He would growl and throw the gun across his small apartment in anger. Tonight Garrus sat alone again watching vids of the talks with Eris he had recorded, he reached for his brandy and froze quickly bolting up and backing up the vid to the beginning.

Eris sat across from him dressed in her casual quarian suit wearing her mask as this talk came before they started their relationship. {I will tell you Garrus omega is a nasty place, you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy. Demo and I once went on a killing spree while hunting slavers there and no one really noticed.} Eris said with a strange mix of nostalgia and loathing. "Really did what makes it so bad?" Garrus had heard rumors about the place. {It is a lawless place the only real rule is 'don't fuck with aria.' Who is the queen there a nasty bitch if crossed. I suppose the trash sections of the merc groups there hold a lot of sway, just once I wish someone would clean house there and take those fuckers who give mercs a bad name out. I mean aria is okay she cares about her people in a roundabout way but the mercs there are trash and scum.} Garrus at the time talked long with her about some of the worst place she and Demo had ever seen.

Garrus shut off the Vid his mind now made up, if he could not bring her back or do any real good here on the citadel then he would carry out her unfulfilled wish. Garrus got to his feet and started packing, his family would miss him but after Eris's death he drift apart no longer willing to keep up with old ties the only one he still talked to was Tali. If he was going to make this work he needed to vanish and let nothing be traceable to any of his friends or family.

With the packing done Garrus start the process of making Garrus Vakarian disappear from the galaxy at large. He quit C-sec shortly after getting everything ready. His father had been pissed to say the least when garrus told him. "Dad this is something I have to do. Eris is gone and I could not be there for her at the end so I can at least make one of her wishes come true." Garrus heard his dad sigh over the Comm, Garrus's father had seen the love in both his son's and his chosen mate's eyes for each other when he finally met her the one time she had taken off her mask to ask permission to join his family. "Fine son go and do what you think is right I won't stop you as I would do the same thing for your mother. Just be safe and watch your six and remember fire every shot in the clip before changing." With that his Father hung up, and Garrus stepped on to the ship that would take him to his new mission site as he no longer had a home without Eris.


	3. Chapter 3

Ch.3 Fleet and sorrow

Kal'Reegar walked the paths of the Neema looking for his newest recruit one Tali'Zorah, he had heard a lot about the young female he didn't think there was a quarian in the fleet who hadn't heard of her. She brought home the greatest pilgrimage gift in the history of their people, a cure for the curse of being trapped in their suits along with a large amount of geth data and research. He was taking her as a new recruit at the request of Admiral Shala'Raan vas Tonbay who was Tali'Zorah's aunt, according to her just over six and a half months ago Tali'Zorah's fiancé had died in an attack by an unknown enemy. His death along with his sister's had been a serious blow to the fleet's moral when the news aired as all the fleet knew who had made the suit and ship programs for the quarian people and the fact that they were raise by a pair of their race outside of the fleet only made it hurt worse, but from what the admiral had said Tali'Zorah had fallen into a depression and not come out of it at all if anything it got worse. She still did her job but from what he had heard if she was not working, eating or sleeping, she was hiding from the crew and crying in corner alone.

Tali was working on the engine trying to finish a repair before her shift ended today and trying to avoid thinking about Demo. {Come on you stupid Bosh'tet get in there!} Tali cursed as she hung upside down in a shaft of the engine core room. When the hose snapped into place she let out a pleased chirp before shimming out of the shaft and turning over to find a quarian male looking at her, she let out a small squeak not having heard him come up behind her. {Tali'Zorah?} The man asked, while Tali struggled to her feet. {Y-Yes what is it?} She asked nervous as by his suit he was a marine and they never came down to the engine bay. {I am Kal'Reegar and I am here to inform you that you have been selected to serve on my squad as my tech expert.} The man said in a soothing voice, Tali was shocked at this but quickly recovered and nodded before gesturing Kal to lead the way to the briefing area.

After the briefing Tali returned to her room and crawled into her cot. 'I am on a marine team?' Tali thought confused having never really want to be a marine she just wanted to work on the ships nothing more. 'What do I do I don't know how to be marine!' She thought but then she heard Demo's voice in her head. {Come on my heart I know you can do it, I mean you served on my team as my tech expert am I not better than your marines?!} she almost laughed at the thought running through her head, and even from the beyond with the ancestors Odysseus could still make her laugh and brighten her day.

The first mission went south faster than Eris's shuttle drops, Tali thought as she crouched behind a wall as geth pounded it with weapon fire. Tali saw a trooper about to take out Kal so she launched her combat drone. "Go get 'em Chatika good girl!" She yelled as the drone fired on the geth pulling its attention away from Kal, Tali then used a hacking program Odysseus made to take control of the geth hunter turning it on the prime. When the last geth fell the other female on the team came up gushing. {Wow I have never heard of someone one hacking a shielded geth before! How did you do it?} At that moment Kal came up and asked same question. {My heart made it when he was still alive he finished it right before what he called the final hunt.} She said fondly. {What is the final hunt? I have only hear rumors about your pilgrimage.} The female name Lee'San vas Neema asked and Tali felt true happiness for the first time at being able to share with someone what her Pilgrimage was like. After that mission the others started going far smoother and Kal, Lee and Tali grew closer. Tali finally started talking with the crew more slowly starting to get used to the hole in her heart and learning to live with the pain of her loss.


	4. Chapter 4

Ch.4 the hidden truth

Miranda moved through the stations corridors heading to the meeting room to meet with the staff to get a rundown of just how bad the situation really was for the project. It had taken nearly half a year to track down and procure the twins' bodies, now Miranda had the nearly impossible job of raising the dead. If she believe in a religion she would be praying that it could be done as the twins were humanity's last hope against the reapers.

The staff heads stood when she entered and sat after she sat down at the head of a long table. "What is the situation?" Miranda asked without greeting as they did not have time to waste even siting in proper cyro chambers the twins could not afford to wait a moment longer than needed. "Not nearly as bad as we had feared when we found out how damaged the pods were." One of the heads said before another picked up as he was the head of the bio assessment team looking at the flesh of the twins. "The body's cells have suffered very little damage given what they had been through, you would not think that they were dead given how well the brains are preserved there has been almost no decay in the brain at all." Miranda raised an eyebrow at that. "I don't like it when people over exaggerate things so how bad is it?" The head paled before speaking. "I am not lying the brains and major organs are all intact the brain cells that have decayed were ones already mapped by their grey boxes meaning they will not have lost anything at all memory wise." "How is that possible, they had been either in no or poor statis for nearly half a year now?" Miranda asked wondering just what kind of monsters she would be working on.

The head of the tech survey team coughed and spoke at that point. "It appears that the twins were already prepared for their deaths." "What do you mean prepared for it?" "Well most of their hard-suits programming and data is corrupted beyond repair we found a backup VI program code named protocol Thanatos that appears to be some kind of medical applicator for when a fatal injury or situation arises." The head explained before turning on a holo display to show the table an image of the hard suits. "The suits injected fast acting long lasting dendrotoxin that caused a death like state to slow decay along with sealing the suit and using Medi-gel laced with coolant to lower the body temperature to lessen decay even more, along with the large number of implants and cybernetics already in their bodies the decay was slowed to a near stop! If the alliance had found them within a week they could have been revived easily!" the head finished excited about the large number of tech advances his team could make from studying the remains of the suits, Miranda sat back floored by just how prepare these twins were for something like this. "Alright I need a timetable for the illusive man." "Just under a year and a half for both of them given everything that they went through and that is for the bodies to be up and running again there is then a month of psych evaluation." The head of the surgery team said and Miranda dismissed them before calling her boss.

"Miss Lawson I hope you have good news?" TIM asked when he answered the call thinking if she refused like the last one he would just kill her like the one before her. "Yes sir it will take just over a nineteen months for the project to be completed." TIM smiled and took a sip of his brandy "Good miss Lawson keep me posted and do not fail me in this. Those twins are the last hope we have." He said before turning the Comm off and ordering his recruitment team to begin gathering the crew needed and to step up the work on the SR2, he sat back looking at the sun through his windows smiling as the pieces started to fall into place.


End file.
